LITMIR.BIZ

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Mordecai Samuels, better known as Capt. Samuels, was born in London, of Jewish parentage. It is not known exactly when he came to this country. I first met him in 1844, at Prairie du Chien, at which time he was a traveling peddler. In 1846 I found him in the Chippewa country, living with an Indian woman and trading with the Indians at the mouth of Sunrise river. In 1847 he established a ball alley and trading post at St. Croix Falls, where he lived until 1861, when he raised a company (the St. Croix Rifles) for the United States service, received a commission and served till the close of the war. After the war he became a citizen of New Orleans, and in 1880 changed his residence to Winfield, Kansas. While in St. Croix he reared a family of half-breed children. He was a shrewd man and an inveterate dealer in Indian whisky. Capt. Samuels was sent as a government agent to the Chippewas of St. Croix valley and the southern shore of Lake Superior, in 1862, to ascertain and report their sentiment in regard to the Sioux war. It may be said of Capt. Samuels that, however unprincipled he may have been, he was no dissembler, but outspoken in his sentiments, however repellant they may have been to the moral sense of the community. He died at Winfield, Kansas, in 1884.

      Joseph B. Churchill was born in New York in 1820; was married in New York to Eliza Turnbull, and came to St. Croix Falls in 1854. He has filled various offices creditably, and has the respect and confidence of his acquaintances. His oldest daughter is the wife of Phineas G. Lacy, of Hudson. His second daughter is the wife of Joseph Rogers. He has one son living.

      John McLean. – Mr. McLean was born 1819, in Vermont; was married in 1844 to Sarah Turnbull and settled on his farm near St. Croix Falls in 1850. Through untiring industry and honorable dealing he has secured a sufficiency for life, a handsome farm and good buildings. A large family has grown up around him, and have settled in the county.

      Gilman Jewell came from New Hampshire; was married in New Hampshire and came to the West in 1847. He settled on a farm near St. Croix Falls. He died in 1869. Mrs. Jewell died January, 1888. One son, Philip, resides on the homestead. Ezra, another son, resides at the Falls. The other members of the family have moved elsewhere.

      Elisha Creech was born in West Virginia, 1831. He came to St. Croix Falls in 1849, and was married to Mary M. Seeds in 1863. They have four children. Mr. Creech has been engaged much of his life in lumbering. Through industry and temperate habits he has made a good farm and a pleasant home.

      James W. McGlothlin was born in Kentucky; came to St. Croix Falls in 1846, and engaged successfully in sawing lumber at the St. Croix mill in 1846 and 1847, but in 1848 rented the mill, being sustained by Waples & Co., of Dubuque, Iowa, but by reason of bad management, he failed and left the valley in 1849. He afterward went to California, where he met a tragic fate, having been murdered by his teamster.

      Andrew L. Tuttle. – Mr. Tuttle came to St. Croix Falls in 1849, and was engaged many years as a lumberman and as keeper of a boardinghouse. He settled on his farm at Big Rock in 1856, where he made himself a comfortable home. He went to Montana in 1865, and died there in 1873. Mrs. Tuttle still resides at the homestead, an amiable woman, who has acted well her part in life. One of her daughters is married to Wm. M. Blanding. One son, Eli, died in 1883, another son, Henry, died in Montana. Perly, John and Warren are settled near the homestead.

      John Weymouth was born at Clinton, Maine, in 1815, and came to St. Croix Falls in 1846, where he followed lumbering and made himself a beautiful home on the high hill overlooking the two villages of St. Croix Falls and Taylor's Falls. By frugality and industry Mr. Weymouth has accumulated a competence. He was married in St. Croix Falls in 1850, to Mary McHugh. One son, John, is married to Miss Ramsey, of Osceola, and a daughter, Mary J., is married to Samuel Harvey, of St. Croix Falls.

      B. W. Reynolds, a tall, thin, stoop-shouldered man of eccentric manners, was receiver at the St. Croix land office from 1861 to 1864. He was a native of South Carolina, and a graduate of Middlebury College, Vermont. He had studied for the ministry, and, if we mistake not, had devoted some years of his life to pastoral work, but devoted later years to secular pursuits. At the close of the war he returned to South Carolina as a reconstructionist, but in two or three years came North, and located at La Crosse, Wisconsin, where he edited the La Crosse Star. He died at La Crosse Aug. 17, 1877.

      Augustus Gaylord. – Mr. Gaylord was a merchant in St. Croix Falls prior to the Rebellion. In 1861 Gov. Harvey appointed him adjutant general of the State. In this office he acquitted himself well. He was an efficient public officer and in private life a high minded, honorable gentleman.

      James D. Reymert. – Mr. Reymert was born in Norway in 1821, and came to America and settled in Racine in 1845. He was a practical printer, and editor of the first Norwegian paper west of the lakes, if not the first in America, and was a man of recognized literary ability. He was a member of the second Wisconsin constitutional convention, 1847, from Racine. In 1849 he was a member of the Wisconsin assembly. He came to St. Croix Falls in 1859, and served two years as agent of the St. Croix Falls Company. He was the organizer of a company in New York City, known as "The Great European-American Land Company," in which Count Taub, of Norway, took an active part. This noted company claimed to have purchased the Cushing property, a claim true only so far as the preliminary steps of a purchase were concerned. For a time there was considerable activity. The town of St. Croix Falls was resurveyed, new streets were opened, and magnificent improvements planned, but failing to consummate the purchase, the company failed, leaving a beggarly account of unpaid debts.

      William J. Vincent. – Mr. Vincent is of Irish descent. He was born June 10, 1830, and came West when a youth. In 1846, at the age of sixteen, he enlisted in Company H, Mounted Rifles, and served through the Mexican War. In 1848 he came to St. Croix Falls, where he followed lumbering and clerking. He was married to Myra Worth in 1855. In 1861 he enlisted in Company F, First Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, of which company he was appointed second lieutenant. He resigned in 1862. He has held the office of county commissioner eleven years, that of county clerk seven years, that of state timber agent four years. In 1879 he served as representative in the Wisconsin assembly. In 1880 he commenced selling goods with his son-in-law, under the firm name of Vincent & Stevenson. He erected the first brick store building in St. Croix Falls in 1884.

      Thompson Brothers. – Thomas Thompson was born in Lower Canada, Nov. 11, 1833, and was married to Eliza Clendenning in 1861. James Thompson was born in Lower Canada, Nov. 11, 1840, and was married to Mary A. Gray in 1871. The brothers came to the Falls in 1856 and engaged in lumbering about ten years, and then in merchandising, jointly, but in 1868 formed separate firms. Thomas built the first brick dwelling house in St. Croix in 1882. Mrs. Thomas Thompson died in 1886. James erected a large flour mill in 1879.

      William Amery was born in London, England, in 1831. He learned the carpenter's trade in London and came to America in 1851, locating at first in Stillwater, but the ensuing year removing to St. Croix Falls. He pre-empted the southeast quarter of the southwest quarter of section 31, township 34, range 18, and adjoining lands in 1853, and this has been his continuous home since. He has served as county treasurer four years and held many town offices. He was married to Sarah Hackett in 1855. The town of Amery is named in honor of this respected man. Mr. Amery died Sept. 4, 1887, leaving a widow, two sons and three daughters.

      Lewis Barlow. – Among the first immigrants to St. Croix Falls was Lewis Barlow, an eccentric, sensitive man. He was a millwright, and, being of an unhappy disposition, led a troubled life. He was the first man married at the Falls. In 1847 he moved to the Minnesota side, where he owned considerable land. He lived here until 1852 when his family left him. He sold his interests and followed and reunited them at Rock Island, Illinois. Here he suffered much and became blind. He traveled with a panorama and so earned a scanty livelihood. In later life he revisited his old home at the Falls, but broken and dejected in spirit. He died at Rock Island in 1872.

      Levi W. Stratton. – Mr. Stratton was one of the passengers of the Palmyra in 1838. He worked for the St. Croix Company two years. After leaving the Falls, he changed his residence several times, and finally settled at Excelsior, Hennepin county, Minnesota, where he died in 1884. Mr. Stratton wrote for the Minneapolis papers many interesting reminiscences of pioneer life on the St. Croix.

      Elma M. Blanding. – Mr. Blanding was born in Harford, Susquehanna county, New York, Feb. 14, 1800. He was married to Eliza Tuttle in 1826. He settled on a farm

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